The hidden costs of the child care crisis
Meg Zopf’s search for child care began four months before her due date.
“We knew pretty quickly that we were going to have to start looking early,” she said. Then the Trump Administration discontinued funding for a program that would have helped her and her university student partner pay for care.
Zopf isn’t alone in struggling to find child care that is both affordable and reliable. Thousands of Kalamazoo County families face the same difficult choices. Local child care advocates want to ask voters to foot the bill for programs that would provide some support. That question could appear on the ballot yet this year.
Portage vetting trash ballot vote signatures
Opponents of Portage’s single-hauler trash contract have turned in more than 4,000 signatures in an effort to overturn that decision. That’s about four times the number of signatures needed to bring the issue up for a vote. Last summer, the city council voted to award the contract for residential trash service to Waste Management – a decision that has drawn opposition from some residents and businesses…